The chop suey restaurant became a fixture in the 1940s and ’50s, when Chinese immigrants were assimilating into American culture and adapting local ingredients and tastes to Chinese cooking techniques. Since the ’70s, the trend has been towards authentic Chinese food, and such faux-Chinese dishes as egg foo young, almond fried chicken bathed in brown gravy, subgum chow mein, and of course chop suey have vanished from many menus.